The blue Honda CR-V connected to the family of missing 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie remains in the hands of the Pima County Sheriff's Department, authorities confirmed as of Wednesday, March 11. The vehicle, associated with Guthrie's daughter Annie Guthrie and son-in-law Tommaso Cioni, has not been returned to the family.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department told Parade that they are "in the process of returning the vehicle to the family," though there is no "exact date when that will happen." Weeks after Nancy Guthrie's disappearance, the car is still being examined, and the lack of a firm return timeline raises more questions than it answers.
According to the Miami Herald, investigative reporter Dave Mack, speaking on the March 10 episode of Nancy Grace's Crime Stories podcast, reported that the Honda is currently sitting at a mechanic shop, still under law enforcement control. His description was specific:
"The vehicle is at the auto mechanic right now, where it is still in the custody of the Pima County Sheriff's Department, not the Guthrie's, and is being worked on by this auto mechanic."
Mack indicated the vehicle is being "put back together," a detail that suggests investigators conducted a thorough forensic examination of the car's interior. The vehicle was impounded early in the investigation, likely to collect DNA evidence.
Police also impounded Nancy Guthrie's own car, which was parked in her garage when authorities arrived at her home on Sunday, Feb. 1. The current status of that vehicle remains unclear.
The known sequence of events is narrow and unsettling. Nancy Guthrie took an Uber to her daughter's home on Saturday, Jan. 31. After the visit, Cioni drove his mother-in-law home, a trip of about 10 minutes. Sheriff Chris Nanos stated that Cioni ensured Nancy was safely inside her home before he left.
Sometime in the middle of that night, authorities believe a person or persons entered Nancy's home and abducted her.
By Sunday, Feb. 1, authorities had arrived at the home. What happened in those overnight hours remains a void at the center of the investigation. It's unclear what might have occurred inside the home or what the possible motives were.
Sheriff Nanos previously released a statement clearing all members of the immediate Guthrie family, and their spouses, in connection with the case. That is a significant step. In most missing persons investigations involving elderly victims, family members remain under scrutiny far longer. The early and public clearance suggests investigators quickly identified evidence pointing elsewhere.
Yet that clearance only deepens the public mystery. If the family is not involved, who entered an 84-year-old woman's home in the middle of the night and took her? The Pima County Sheriff's Department and the FBI have been working diligently to find Nancy and to identify the person or persons responsible for her disappearance, but no arrest has been announced. No suspect has been named publicly.
The continued custody of the Honda CR-V is one of the few visible markers of an active investigation. Law enforcement does not hold a family's vehicle for weeks on end without reason. The fact that it was disassembled to the point of needing a mechanic to "put it back together" signals a level of forensic attention that goes well beyond a routine check.
Whether investigators found anything inside that vehicle, we do not know. The sheriff's department has not disclosed results from any forensic examination. But the timeline matters here: the Honda was the car Cioni used to drive Nancy home the night she vanished. It was one of the last places Nancy, 84, was before her disappearance.
Every detail in this case carries weight precisely because so few details exist. An elderly woman went to dinner at her daughter's house, was driven home safely, and was gone by morning. No public suspect. No disclosed motive. Nobody.
The car sits at a mechanic shop in Pima County. The FBI is involved. The family waits.
And Nancy Guthrie is still missing.
